Art shows and photography at The Kessler
214TRANS4M
When transgender models strike poses beside landmarks in Texas’ most conservative metroplex, the results can be exquisitely photogenic yet ideologically conflicting. But the creative team of Daniel Kusner and Bryan Amann hasn’t shied away from the challenge.
“214 Trans4m” is a photo series that aims to capture Dallas’ history, architecture and stereotypes, all while straddling the invisible divide that separates the feminine and masculine.
Kusner and Amann construct each image as if they’re producing a small movie. Each project involves casting characters, choosing wardrobe, scouting locations, styling and building props.
Some images from the Kusner+Amann portfolio include:
• “Memora-Beale-ia.” Drag performer Richard D. Curtin morphs into a daffy Edith Bouvier Beale, dancing before the Kennedy Memorial to inspire our admiration for a forsaken structure whose design was approved by her famously tasteful cousin.
• “Tina’s Great Escape.” Gender illusionist Obsession Omega morphs into Tina Turner bolting from the Statler Hilton, finally leaving an abusive Ike.
• “Sugar with Elephant.” Standing outside Museum of Nature & Science in Fair Park, Dallas nightclub denizen Sugar echoes Richard Avedon’s iconic 1955 “Dovima with the Elephants” — prompting us to remember the imperial mammoths that wandered the Trinity River bottom 10,000 years ago.
Some regard Dallas (now that George and Laura Bush are our neighbors) as the Lone Star State’s cradle for reactionaries and traditionalists. Where men are men, and women are women. But Big D is too big to surrender to such narrow definitions. Highlighting places of interest for the average visiting tourist, “214 Trans4m” invites Dallasites to look at their own city — but in a different light.
WHO: Daniel Kusner and Bryan Amann
WHAT: “214 Trans4m”
WHERE: Kessler X+ Gallery, inside The Kessler, 1230 W. Davis. Dallas.
WHEN: April 18, 2012 to May 20, 2012.
OPENING RECEPTION: Wednesday, April 18. 7 p.m.-10 p.m.
CONTACT: email daniel-kusner@sbcglobal.net or call 214-499-0926.
CURATOR/EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: Nicole Cullum Horn, nicole@thekessler.org
WEB: thekessler.org
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“Mind Breaths” featuring work by Yun Jung Lee, Chancellor Page and Randall Garrett. This show brings together three artists who take an inward mindfulness toward their artistic inspiration. These artists are all touched with the gift of the visionary but their personal reveries reflect a commonality of intent. Yun Jung Lee’s paintings overflow with color and organic forms that sometimes engulf and sometimes reveal images taken from her Korean heritage or from American pop culture. Chancellor Page engages his stream of consciousness with rich abandon and creates pictures loaded with symbology and overwhelming imagination. Randall Garrett is a spiritual warrior seeking to liberate himself from the plain of carnal desire by making art seemingly wrenched from the murk of his unconscious. This is the premiere showing of Ms. Yun Jung Lee’s work, Chancellor Page’s work has been featured in shows in New York and Texas and he currently teaches at Brookhaven College. Randall Garrett has shown in numerous venues across Texas as well as in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, he runs the Plush Gallery in Dallas and also the gallery at El Centro College. This show will run from March 2 to April 28, there will be a reception for the artists on Thursday March 29 from 7-10pm.
“Brothers Keeper” Art by the Amazing Hancock Brothers and The Vaughan Brothers in Dallas by Kirby Warnock. These shows will run from Jan. 6- Feb. 12, 2012. There will be a special reception for the artists on Wed. Feb. 8, 7-10pm, with a performance by the Hancock Brothers and music by the Chiefs.
Charles and John Hancock are the “enfants terribles” of Central Texas, infamous outlaw printmakers, elder statesmen, old farts, masters of multiple print mediums and exotic materials, they particularly excel in silkscreen and woodcuts. Their subject matter is a toxic blend of vintage sci-fi and horror movies and Southwestern cowboy culture, filtered through their Japanese and Texan gene pools. They gleefully reference Sumo and Mexican wrestlers, insects, kanji script, booze, hotrods and 18 wheelers. There are also veiled references to Phrenology, Walker Percy, Charles Bukowski, the Beats, the music of Gary Stewart, Buck Owens and a smattering of Ice T, Slayer and Ian Dury. The Hancocks are the Godfathers of the DIY ethos, young at heart, despite the Viagra, stool softeners and nerve pills, they still got plenty of rattle left, beware!
Kirby Warnock’s vintage photos of Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan captures that ephemeral moment before they realized their breakout recordings that launched their careers into the realm of the legendary. Although Austin tries to claim the Brothers, both of them grew up in Oak Cliff, attending Stockard Middle School and Kimball High, and hanging on Jefferson Avenue. The photos of Stevie are from a modestly attended free concert in Lee Park and with Muddy Waters at Nick’s Uptown on Lower Greenville. The photos of Jimmie are at a Fabulous Thunderbirds show at the Faces Club on Cedar Springs and the Palladium on Northwest Highway.
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Clyde Igarashi
Mighty Fine Arts presents “Vintage Naughty Paradise” @ The Kessler, featuring vintage artist models photos by Jason Cohen and paintings by Clyde Igarashi. This show opens Thursday November 17 with a reception for the artists from 6-9pm and will run till December 31, 2011. Former Forbidden Books and Gallery owner and current Curiosities owner Jason Cohen has over the years been compiling a choice selection of found photos of artists models posing in various degrees of undress and provocation, it’s that secret stash of naked lady pics that your uncle had hidden away in the closet. Celebrate some old school pruience, when naughty was fun, before internet lewd, and make sure one of these ladies isn’t your old Aunt Matilda. Painter Clyde Igarashi’s critters and creatures inhabit a nether world “paradise” where all kinds of arcane rituals and dramas play out in mysterious scenarios. Part fuzzy, part industrial, part organic, part post cute, he allows the viewer plenty of room to fill in the blanks. And you’ll be beguiled enough to want to do that!
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Davis/Bishop 2011 Photo Exhibit
From Roy Appleton of the Dallas Morning News:
In a project co-sponsored by the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce, 18 students of Oak Cliff resident and UTA art professor Kenda North have focused on places and people along Davis and Bishop.
Their work, titled davis/bishop2011.doc, will be exhibited from March 30 through April 7 at the Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis St., with a reception from 6 to 9 p.m. April 6. With a suggested donation of $10, the event will be a fund-raiser for Adamson and Sunset high schools. Books presenting the photographs will be available for purchase as well. Gifted Austin-based musician Danny Malone will perform in the front room.
For more information, contact North at kenda@uta.edu or Erin Piwowarski at memberservices@oakcliffchamber.org